Sonus Faber Cremona M vs Verity Audio Parsifal

I own Cremonas (pre-M) and Parsifal/Encores. My take:

These are two very different animals.

The Verity has a notable hump in the mid/upper bass and a falling response from there right up thru the entire band. The result is warm and musical, if not the last word in strict neutrality. Add in wonderful imaging/staging and a very revealing mid-band and you've got a great mix - it shows off a lot of what you want to hear in a great recording while sounding much better than it has any right to with less great (particularly those tipped up sizzlers that I seem to own a ton of, i.e. a lot of pop and rock) recordings.

The Cremona is not typical old school SF, the description of which which might not sound too different from my description of the Verity, above. (I also own SF Minuettos, which do have the bass hump, falling response thing going on.) The Cremona has notably more energy in the presence region and scores very highly on the macro-dynamic front. It's also a bit tighter in the bass. IME, it's not lean or hard sounding, but it is less forgiving than the Verity. OTOH, it's a bit more dramatic sounding on large scale music.

BTW, I can't comment on the M version, since I've never had one in my system for comparison.

I like both speakers a lot. On jazz and acoustic (particularly vocal) music, the Verity is an amazingly satisfying speaker. On larger scale music, the best recordings may not sound their very best, but they will usually sound very, very good. Overall, I prefer it to the Cremona - but this comparison will see all kinds of conclusions, depending on the individual listener's personal priority.

Good Luck,

Marty

PS The S/F is IMHO a significantly better looking beast. In my contemporary living room, it's coupled with a Pathos Classic One/Digit combo to make a wonderful contemporary Italian decor statement. Sounds pretty good, too.....

Martyki - Off topic. I have a Pathos Classic One driving original SF Concertos, which I like very much. I have tried it with my original Cremona with less success. To me, it is very nice but just does not have enough to bring out the best in the Cremona. I have not tried dual Classic Ones. I have a Cary SLP-05 and a Levinson 432 driving mine (obviously more money) and I think it does a much better job - more dynamic with better base. So, you may be able to get more out of your Cremona if you are willing to pay the price. I do like a tube pre with the Cremona. I agree on the look - a Pathos/Cremona combo is stunning.

The Cremona M was designed to be more linear and more detailed than the original Cremona. This makes it less "colored", but to me it also makes it somewhat cold and lifeless.

Dtc,

I've used my Cremonas with nearly a dozen different amps (Krell, Odyssey, ARC, Prima Luna, Cary, and several others). I'd agree that the Pathos limits the max effective SPL of the Cremona relative to the higher power SS units. However, I really like it for the moderate listening levels it sees in its current installation. It strikes me as better sounding than most, right up until the SPL reaches the point where it's worse sounding than some. In my circumstance (partially dictated by WAF issues), the Pathos is the best choice.

I do agree that, if it were my main speaker in my listening room, I'd probably go for something with a little more grunt (per your observation).

Marty

I have used mono-blocked Pathos Classic 1's for two years now with my Cremora M's and have been very pleased with the results. I had used the Classics with the concertos previously, but the Cremora M's are a big improvement. The mon-blocked Pathi provide plenty of power and certainly don't sound "lifeless" in my system. I've been very happy with the combination.

First off I admit that I've never heard any Verity Audio products. I have, however, heard several SF speakers and most recently heard a pair of Cremona Ms. They knocked my socks off. They weren't even in a particularly sophisticated setup. They were sourced and powered by the Marantz PM8004 / SA8004 bundle. Not junk certainly, but not exactly extravagant either.

Usually for a speaker as fine as the Cremona M I want to play vinyl or at least SACD. I was supplied the Diana Krall CD (not bad for a CD) that has "Peel Me a Grape" and "All or Nothing at All."

The demo blew me away. I could hear a level of ambience I didn't know was on "Peel Me a Grape." Her voice was extremely natural and transparent with no hint of cabinet coloration and I couldn't have wished for a better tonal balance. The higher level of ambience seemed to be from simply better low level resolution because I detected no tip-up in high treble or the types of tricks often used to increase the perception of detail.

The other really telling test was Christian McBride's athletic bass intro to "All Or Nothing at All." This is some fast upright bass played by one of the few remaining living masters. It was astounding. The Cremona M woofers tracked that bass line perfectly and I never would have guessed that the cab is double ported because there were no hot spots or dips in the bass frequency response. The bass stays linear with no dropoff right down to his slide at the end to near the bottom of the bass's range.

So impressive was this performance that this demo haunted me for weeks. Under current circumstances there's no way I could afford a pair, but I'll say that if I ever got within sniffing distance of $10-12K for a pair of speakers, the Cremona Ms would be it. In fact, if I wanted a pair of true full range speakers good down to 20 Hz, I would get the Cremona Ms plus a pair of JL F112s and be done with it.

Of course YMMV but for me, the Cremona Ms have something special where emotional communication and involvement are concerned. I can't listen to them without the music invoking a very strong emotional reaction, usually a great big smile. I have no doubt they'd keep their composure in large scale classical and big band. After all, I was auditioning them with a 70 wpc integrated SS amp. How much potential do these guys have?